Russia Forcing Olympic And Elite Athletes To Dope

Trending News: Russian Athletes Have Been Doping For Years - And The Government Helped

Why Is This Important?

Because it's impossible to when when the deck is stacked against you in the form of state-sanctioned cheating.

Long Story Short

A bombshell report released by the World Anti-Doping Agency claims that Russian athletes, coaches and trainers have been participating in government sponsored and enforced doping en masse. The findings are so damning that Russia may be banned from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Long Story

Cheating makes sports less fun, that much is a fact. Government and corporate corruption, as observed in the recent FIFA fiascos, is also a drag. But combine the two — cheating backed by a nation's government — and you have the recipe for one of the biggest sports scandals in history. According to a scathing report by the World Anti-Doping Agency, Russia has been sponsoring cheating on the part of its athletes, coaches and trainers in the form of doping and PEDs. The allegations are so bad that Russia may find themselves banned from next year's Olympic Games in Brazil.

While athletes will always look to gain a competitive edge and cheaters will always fall through the cracks, most countries and sporting organizations have controls in place to prevent cheating on such a massive scale. Russia has an anti-doping agency of their own (RUSADA), but the problem is that they were involved in the corruption, or at least subject to it — members of Russian law enforcement would set up shop in the testing facilities, strongly suggesting that technicians should tamper with or contaminate blood and urine samples.

This is a major problem for Russia, who for years has been trying to convince the rest of the world that the shady tactics of the Soviet Union were over. Russian officials say that any instances of doping or cheating are merely the product of die-hard coaches who won't change their ways, but the WADA report suggests otherwise. They recommend lifetime bans for five coaches and five athletes, including the gold and bronze medalists from the women’s 800 meters at the 2012 London Olympics. Other athletes singled out by the report include winners and participants from other prestigious competitions, including the Chicago Marathon.

As of now, there's no timeframe for Russia's suspension from athletic competition. While it's possible that they won't be present in Rio at all, officials say that the bans could be lifted if athletes and coaches get cleaned up in time.

“If they do the surgery and do the therapy, I hope they can get there and compete,” Richard W. Pound, co-author of the report and founding member of WADA, told the New York Times. “The idea is not to exclude people from the Olympics if you can avoid that, but sometimes if the conduct is not corrected, that’s the price you pay for it.”

Honestly, there's no way to tell how deep the misconduct went or how many people it affected. One of the testing laboratories named in the report handled drug testing responsibilities for the Sochi Winter Olympics, and is set to do the same in 2018 when Russia hosts the World Cup. It may be years before investigators can figure out the extent of the cheating, and how many people lost events they probably shouldn't have.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: How long has this been going on?

Disrupt Your Feed: Russia should be banned from the Rio Olympics, regardless of whether or not they clean up their act.

Drop This Fact: Russia had more doping violations in 2013 than any other country, responsible for 12% of the world's violations.